Barcelona

Although Barcelona is a beautiful, interesting city, it’s never really captured our hearts — it’s a bit of a Paris-syndrome place for us. Of course, you have to go there at least once in your life, to visit Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and Parc Güell, as well as eat delicious food and visit La Rambla.

We didn’t do too much while we were there this time; we mostly hung out with our host Ruben. We did wander down to the marina though, and while we were there a photographer took photos of us kissing for his blog.

I’m sure they’ll finish this… Someday.

Couchsurfing is awesome.

There’s something about sailing….

Zaragoza

Zaragoza is a wonderful city for architecture: the two most well-known attractions are the Pilar church (or the Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, if you prefer) and the Aljafería fortress. We only had a couple of days there as we had to head to London for a conference, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Zaragoza. Next time, apparently, we need to have tapas at the bars beside the river.

Detail of an arch inside the palace.

Spires of the cathedral.

Outside of the bull ring.

Córdoba

If you look at a map of Spain, Zaragoza and Córdoba aren’t anywhere near each other — but catch one of Spain’s fast trains and that distance is barely noticeable. We got up to 300km at times!

There’s plenty to do in Córdoba, much of it centred around architecture. You shouldn’t miss the mesquita, the oldest mosque in Spain, though the Alcázar is also worth a visit for its views and cheesy night-time light show. We also visited the Calahorra tower and the fine arts museum — both worthwhile attractions.

A pond and interior wall of the Alcazar.

Looking towards the city from the top of the tower.

A quieter street, and Arabic influences on show

For us, the best thing about Córdoba was the food. In many bars, you’ll be given a free tapa with your drink — plus, you won’t be overcharged for the drink, and the tapas are delicious.

Granada

Sadly, the same thing can’t be said for Granadan tapas. They are free with a drink, sure, but the drinks are noticeably more expensive and the tapas are mostly sandwiches made with too much dry bread and not enough filling. Very disappointing.

The city itself, however, is stunning. The main draw is the Alhambra palace complex, which you can read more about in How to visit the Alhambra. We also wandered around the Albaycin and Sacremonte areas of town with a couch surfer as a guide — it was great to see another side of the city. Here’s the street art of Granada that Craig promised in the podcast.

Stone towers and palm trees: living up to the dream.

Detail of the Lion Fountain in the Alhambra.

A popular viewpoint in the Albaycin.

Jerez

Our journey from Granada to Jerez via Dos Hermanas was the last train trip of IndieRail. It was sad to finish our ten-week adventure, but we were excited about settling in for three months and getting to know the city of Sherry and horses. However, soon after we arrived Indie Travel Podcast was attacked and we had to put everything on pause while Craig got it up and running again. Now, we’re slowly starting to discover more about this awesome city — which we’ll tell you all about in a future episode.

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Craig Martin

Craig and Linda Martin have been living on the road since February 2006. Both born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand they are ... somewhere in the world! Craig and Linda host the Indie Travel Podcast - you can get in touch with them here.

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Spain is one of our favourite countries in the world — something just keeps drawing us back! Since our first visit there in 2008, we’ve set up temporary bases in three Spanish cities, walked four Caminos de Santiago, and tasted countless tapas. With its huge regional variation, a visit to one part of Spain could […]